Oakland Raiders: A Measure of Team Strength for Context of Great Wide Receivers

Most people believe that the wide receivers are the guys who get the points in many of the NFL games. Here is a chart of data of several outstanding Oakland Raiders who were wide receivers.

One comparison uses only the first three years that each player was cited as the outstanding wide receiver. Other observations are made.

506

strongest team

Branch

6

418

strongest team

Biletnikoff

3

362

strongest team

Wells

3

137

Brown

10

124

median

Powell

5

113

Christensen

3

37

Rice

2

-25

Fernandez

3

-268

Miller

3

-279

least strong

Curry

2

One observation is that Cliff Branch, Fred Biletnikoff and Warren Wells were outstanding and if we use point difference as a measure of team strength, they were on stronger teams than some of the other wide receivers.

Here is another table:

Brown

Wells

Branch

Powell

Biletnikoff

418

Biletnikoff

3 of 3

72

7

60

4

117

362

Wells

3 of 3

180

135

58

27

66

313

Brown

3 of 10

61

220

28

59

235

146

Branch

3 of 6

313

362

146

90

418

90

Powell

3 of 5

First three years

Another observation is that Biletnikoff and Wells rank above Brown, Branch and Powell when we consider the context of team strength. The comparison is also narrowed to the first three years that they are cited as outstanding wide receivers.

This discussion is descriptive. One thing that is learned is that outstanding wide receivers in the context of a strong team as measured by point difference helps to further distinguish the wide receivers.